1. Field of the Invention
This application relates to producing images on a surface, and more specifically relates to transfer printing using sublimation dye, white toner, and weed-free paper.
2. Description of Related Art
Transfer printing involves temporarily creating an image on a first surface, and then transferring that image to a second surface. Transfer printing is used to apply designs to an almost unlimited variety of objects. One field in particular which has seen a large growth in transfer printing over the course of the 20th Century is the transfer printing of textiles. Tee shirts with preprinted designs have become very popular among consumers, and technologies have been developed to assist in the creation of such shirts. With the advent of home computing and improvements in printing technology, consumers can now make their own designs on transfer paper and apply them to a surface using a clothes iron.
It has been found that sublimation dyes and disperse dyes used in transfer printing provide a superior transfer as compared to traditional pigments. Sublimation dyes, as the name suggests, change directly from a solid phase to a gaseous phase upon heating. When used in transfer printing articles, sublimation dyes can provide bold and vivid colors, that have a better “hand” or feel than prints made from traditional pigments, and have a better wash-fastness. Sublimation dyes adhere very well to synthetic materials such as polyester, but do not work as well with natural materials such as cotton. In some cases, inventors have attempted to improve the application of sublimation dyes to natural materials such as cotton by creating transfer media specifically designed for that purpose.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,021,591 to DeVries et al. discloses a dry release sublimation transfer which includes a temporary backing sheet having disposed thereon a sublimation transfer design layer formed of one or more sublimation transfer inks, and a polymeric coating disposed in contact with such design layer. In one embodiment, the design layer is first printed on the backing sheet employing conventional printing techniques and thereafter the polymeric coating is applied over the design layer. In another embodiment, the polymeric coating is first applied to the backing sheet and thereafter the design layer is printed over the polymeric coating. The dry release sublimation transfer is applied under heat and pressure to a substrate to be decorated, such as cotton fabric or a cotton-polyester fabric, thereby causing the polymeric coating to soften and penetrate into the substrate and upon cooling securely bond the design layer to the substrate. In addition, a method for decorating a substrate employing the above-described dry release sublimation transfer is provided.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,172,418 to Durand describes a method and apparatus for effecting sublimation printing of a substrate wherein a matrix comprising the design to be printed is electrostatically charged in a given polarity and then a fine disperse dye powder, oppositely charged, is brought into contact with said matrix wherein the charged matrix attracts the oppositely charged dye particles to effect coating of the matrix with the dye, after which the coated matrix is moved into registry with the substrate to be printed, and specifically in overlying relation with respect to a surface of the substrate that has been coated with a dye receptive coating, after which the matrix is brought into pressurized contact with the coated surface of the substrate to cause sublimation of the dye pattern into said coated substrate surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,576,610 to Donenfeld discloses an improved method for sublimation dye transfer printing of a sublimable dye onto fabric by applied heat, comprising applying a composition comprising a polyester resin to the fabric, in which the polyester resin chemically bonds the dye to the fabric, to yield a fabric having a soft hand and deep color which is fast through repeated laundering. In preferred embodiments, the polyester resin has free carboxyl groups. In another embodiment, a conventional dye binder is also applied to the fabric. In a further modification, metallic glitter is added to the dye. The present invention also provides dye bonding compositions for bonding sublimable dues to fabrics, and sublimation dye transfer printing elements incorporating the compositions of the invention.
It has been found that when transfer printing to a dark article, for example transfer printing onto black fabric, the image can be obscured by the dark article. Attempts have been made by inventors to overcome this problem by providing a background against which the transferred design can stand out.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,773,953 to Hare describes a method for creating personalized, creative designs or images on a fabric such as a tee shirt or the like using a personal computer system. The design is first created by hand on the monitor screen of the computer system. The design so created is then printed onto a heat transfer sheet. The design is then ironed onto the fabric or tee shirt. The design may also be an image, such as a picture created by a video camera.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,642,141 to Hale et al. discloses a method of printing a liquid ink which is produced from a heat activated dye which is selected from a limited group of dyes which are capable of transfer at low energy. A printer which uses liquid ink, such as an ink jet printer, prints an image onto an intermediate substrate medium. The dyes contained in the ink are not substantially activated during the process of printing on to the medium. The image formed by the printed ink is transferred from the medium to a final substrate by the application of heat and pressure for a short period of time to activate the ink. The dye and dispersing/emulsifying agent(s) are selected from a limited group to produce an ink which permits thermal transfer at low energy, with the resulting image, as deposited on the final substrate, having an optical density of 1.0 or greater.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,734,396 to Hale et al. discloses a transfer sheet capable of applying a colored pattern to a final support material through the application of heat and pressure. The transfer sheet includes a carrier sheet having a colored pattern printed on the surface thereof. A digitally controlled color printer is used to print a colored pattern on the surface of the carrier sheet. A layer of white colored material is printed over at least the color pattern with a digitally controlled color printer. A layer of glue is deposited over the layer of white colored material. The layer of glue may also be printed over the white colored material by the digitally controlled color printer, or by a separate device, if required.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,369,843 B1 to Springett et al. discloses a transfer sheet capable of applying a colored pattern to a final support material through the application of heat and pressure. The transfer sheet includes a carrier sheet having a colored pattern printed on a surface thereof. A digitally controlled color printer is used to print a colored pattern on the surface of the carrier sheet. A layer of white colored material is printed over at least the color pattern with a digitally controlled color printer. A layer of glue is deposited over the layer of white colored material. The layer of glue may also be printed over the white colored material by the digitally controlled color printer, or by a separate device, if required.
United States Published Patent Application No. 2002/0047889 to Springett et al. discloses a transfer sheet capable of applying a colored pattern to a final support material through the application of heat and pressure. The transfer sheet includes a carrier sheet having a colored pattern printed on a surface thereof. A digitally controlled color printer is used to print a colored pattern on the surface of the carrier sheet. A layer of white colored material is printed over at least the color pattern with a digitally controlled color printer. A layer of glue is deposited over the layer of white colored material. The layer of glue may also be printed over the white colored material by the digitally controlled color printer, or by a separate device, if required.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,409,330 B1, to Nakamura et al. discloses an ink composition which can satisfy, on a high level, various property requirements for ink compositions for use in ink jet recording (e.g., excellent ejection stability and realization of images free from feathering or color-to-color bleeding) and can realize good images by sublimation transfer. A sublimation transfer ink jet recording method using the ink composition is also disclosed. The ink composition comprises a heat transferable dye, a glycol ether, an acetylene glycol surfactant, and water. This ink composition is printed by ink jet recording onto an intermediate transfer medium to form a latent image on the intermediate transfer medium, and the intermediate transfer medium is then put on the surface of a receptor object, followed by heating of the intermediate transfer medium at a sufficient temperature and for a sufficient time to sublimate the heat transferrable dye and to deposit the sublimated dye onto the surface of the receptor object. This recording method can realize good transferred images suffering from minimized bleeding.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,486,903 B1 to Wagner et al. discloses that a coated media is printed with ink. The area of the media which is not covered with ink is cured by exposure to radiation, and the printed image is transferred to a final substrate. The media is coated with a radiation curable coating. Upon exposure to electron beam or ultraviolet radiation, the coating in the exposed, non-imaged, area cures, and becomes permanently bonded to the base sheet. The ink layer of the imaged area effectively blocks, absorbs and/or reflects the radiation and does not allow polymerization under the imaged area. The image is transferred to a final substrate by placing the image in contact with the final substrate, followed by the application of energy. The image is permanently bonded to the final substrate. No overprint, or non-imaged area, that is visible or which may be felt by touching, is transferred to the final substrate.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,488,370 B2 to Hale et al. discloses a method of producing a printed a by printing heat activated ink solids in a non activated form onto a medium in a desired image by means of an ink jet printer. The invention is printed using ink or dye compositions comprising heat activated ink or dye solids. The ink compositions used to print the medium are solid at ambient temperature when used with phase change ink jet printers, and are emulsions when used with liquid ink jet printers such as free flow and bubble jet printers. The dye solids are printed in the desired design by means of a printer onto a substrate, which becomes the printed medium. The substrate may be paper, or it may be other material.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,618,066 B2 to Hale et al. discloses an image that is printed on a substrate by means of a computer driven ink jet printer using heat activated dye, without activating the dye during the process of printing onto the substrate. The individual solid dye particles are present in a liquid ink, and are stabilized in the ink by an emulsifying enforcing agent that emulsifies the solid dye particles within the ink. The dye is subsequently activated by applying sufficient heat and pressure to the substrate to activate the dyes and permanently bond the image to a final substrate. The resulting permanent image is resistant to laundering.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,966,643 B2 to Hale et al. discloses an image that is printed on a substrate by means of a computer driven printer using heat activated dyes, without activating the dyes during the process of printing onto the substrate. The dyes are subsequently activated by applying sufficient heat and pressure to the substrate to activate the dyes.
U.S. Reissued Pat. No. RE38,952 E to Hale et al. discloses [A method of printing a liquid ink which is produced from a heat activated dye which is selected from a limited group of dyes which are capable of transfer at low energy. A printer which uses liquid ink, such as an ink jet printer, prints an image onto an intermediate substrate medium. The dyes contained in the ink are not substantially activated during the process of printing on to the medium. The image formed by the printed ink is transferred from the medium to a final substrate by the application of heat and pressure for a short period of time to activate the ink. The dye and dispersing/emulsifying agent(s) are selected from a limited group to produce an ink which permits thermal transfer at low energy, with the resulting image, as deposited on the final substrate, having an optical density of 1.0 or greater.] Liquid ink is produced using heat activated dyes selected from a limited group of dyes that are capable of heat activation. The dyes are not substantial soluble in the liquid carrier, such as water. One or more emulsifying agents stabilize the ink formulation. A printer that uses liquid ink, such as an ink jet printer, is used to print the ink, and dye is heat activated after printing.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,041,424 B2 to Xu et al. discloses reactive toners which are printed by electrophotographic and electrographic printers. One or more of the toners may include reactive components. An additional toner, which may be a colorless toner, comprises reactive components. The toners comprising one or more colorants are used to form an image on a substrate. The additional toner may be printed over, or under, the image, to cover the image as the image is printed on the substrate. The reactive components of the additional toner provide a base that covers at least the entire image to improve adhesion of the image layer with the final substrate, particularly where substrates having rough surfaces, such as textiles, are used as the final substrate.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,654,660 B2 to Hale et al. discloses reactive inks and methods of generating an image on a substrate using both reactive and heat activated inks. An image is printed on a substrate, without reacting the reagents in the ink. Subsequently, the reagents are reacted to fix the image to a substrate, with substantial permanency and fastness. Sublimation or similar heatactivated syes are printed on the substrate. The sublimation or similar heat activated dyes are activated, and have an affinity for polymer that is applied to the substrate.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,749,581 B2 to Dalvey et al. discloses an image transfer sheet. The image transfer sheet comprises a release layer and a polymer layer. One or more of the release layer and the polymer layer comprise titanium oxide or other white pigment.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,766,475 B2 to Dalvey et al. discloses an image transfer sheet. The image transfer sheet comprises a release layer and a polymer layer. One or more of the release layer and the polymer layer comprise titanium oxide or other white pigment.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,771,554 B2 to Dalvey et al. discloses an image transfer sheet. The image transfer sheet comprises a release layer and a polymer layer. One or more of the release layer and the polymer layer comprise titanium oxide or other white pigment.
U.S. Reissued Pat. No. RE41,623 E to Schwendimann et al. discloses an image transfer sheet. The image transfer sheet comprises a release layer and a polymer layer. One or more of the release layer and the polymer layer comprise titanium oxide or other white pigment.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,943,214 B1 to Bamberg et al. discloses an ink-jet transfer system, as well as a transfer printed product which is highly wash-resistant, color-fast, and environmentally friendly, and a process for producing the same and its use in a printing process by means of the disclosed ink-jet transfer system. The disclosed ink-jet transfer system has a substrate, a hot-melt layer applied on the substrate and at least one ink-absorbing layer which comprises a mixture of a highly porous pigment and a binder. The molecules of the pigment and if required of the binder and hot-melt layer can form chemical bonds with the dying molecules of the ink.
Many of the transfer media described in the literature are in the form of a sheet of transfer paper. A disadvantage of many of these transfer papers is that when the transfer is effectuated, an entire surface layer of the transfer paper (including areas which do not contain a design) is transferred to the article. This results in an inferior final product, due to the fact that the transfer media adheres to the article in places outside the printed design. One method used to overcome this problem is to cut away parts of the transfer media that do not contain a printed design. Another method is to neutralize areas of the transfer media that do not contain a printed design. Recently, forms of “self-weeding” transfer media have been produced that eliminate the need to neutralize the non-printed areas of the transfer media, yet still only transfer the portion of transfer media on which a design is printed. Examples of such self-weeding transfer paper include TRANSGLOSS® produced by One Step Papers of Miami, Fla. (http://www.onesteppapers.com), FOREVER No-Cut produced by FOREVER Gmbh of Heddesheim, Germany (http://www.forever-ots.com), and Free Style by Modern Transcopy (http://www.mtct.de/Free_eng—2010.pdf).
As used in the application, “transfer sheet” and “transfer paper” both refer to a medium on which a design is temporarily printed, before being transferred to an article. The materials from which the transfer sheet or transfer paper are made do not change the meaning of these terms.
United States Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0089525 A1 to Krozner discloses a method of forming an opaque image on a substrate. The method generally includes the use of three papers: a toner printable sheet, a coating transfer sheet, and an opaque transfer sheet. Toner printing can be utilized to print an image on the toner printable sheet, and then the toner ink can be utilized to remove a portion of the melt coating layer from the coating transfer sheet to form an intermediate imaged coated transfer sheet and the opaque transfer sheet can then be utilized to form an image, defined by the opaque areas, on a substrate.
U.S. Reissued Pat. No. RE42,541 E to Dalvey et al. discloses a method for transferring an image from one substrate to another. The method includes providing an image transfer sheet that is comprised of a substrate layer, a release layer and an image-imparting layer that may comprise a low density polyethylene or other polymeric component having a melting temperature within a range of 90°-700° C. An image is imparted to the low density polyethylene area with an image-imparting medium. A second image-receiving substrate is contacted to the first image transfer sheet at the polymer layer. Heat is applied to the image transfer sheet so that the low density polyethylene encapsulates the image-imparting medium and transfers the encapsulates to the image-receiving substrate, thereby forming a mirror image on the image-receiving substrate.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,029,883 B2 to Xu et al. discloses a transfer medium for receiving images formed on the medium by inks or toners comprising thermally diffusible colorants, including disperse dye and sublimation dye, and methods of using the medium to present images on substrates. The medium provides an opaque layer that allows transfer of the image from the medium to a substrate, and provides a background for the image when the image is transferred to a dark colored substrate, so that the dark colored substrate does not obscure the image.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,172,974 B2 to Krozner discloses methods and products for forming a coated image on a substrate. The methods can include forming an image on a printable surface of a transfer coating layer of a printable transfer sheet. In a separate step, the negative mirror image of that same image is printed with toners on a toner printable sheet. After registering the sheets together, a portion of the transfer coating layer of the printable transfer sheet is transferred to the toner printable sheet, such that the portion of the transfer coating layer transferred to the toner printable sheet corresponds to the imaged areas on the toner printable sheet. However, the image formed on the printable surface of the transfer coating layer and the underlying transfer coating substantially remain on the printable transfer sheet. Thereafter, the image and the transfer coating layer remaining on the printable transfer sheet are transferred to a substrate.